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April 07, 2014

The Pennsylvania Gazette

[Posted in part on L&P on May 10, 2013.]The first fountain pens from the 1650s to the early 1800s were all of the Bion type. But if we’re talking about the US in the same time frame, all of the fountain pens in the American colonies were imported from the mother country, Britain. Between the years 1742 and 1774, there were around 326 uses of the words “fountain pen” and “fountain pens” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, mostly in ads from stationers who were selling the pens, so it was already a common writing instrument during that time. It just wasn’t that popular and dependable, yet. The only thing that put a stop to the flow of merchandise from the old country was the beginning of the Revolutionary War. After Britain won the French and Indian War in North America, it was heavily in debt, and passed the Stamp Act in 1765. The imposition of such taxes on the colonies met with strong condemnation, and organized boycotts of British goods were initiated. The ad in The Gazette on June 3, 1762, reads in part, “Imported in the last Vessels from London, and sold by David Hall, At the New Printing Office in Market Street, Philadelphia, A Large and well chosen Assortment of Paper Hangings, Writing Paper of all Sorts, by the Ream, or lesser Quantity; embossed and marbled Paper; English Pasteboard, Parchment, Quills, Pens, Sealing Wax and Wafers; neat Cases of Pocket Instruments; Scales and Dividers; Slates and Slate Pencils; Penknives;…Black Lead Pencils, Fountain Pens, &c”. I think it meant to say “the latest vessels from London”, but that slip of the pen gave away the underlying wish that colonization would soon come to an end.

Here are a few of the websites with which to search the issues of The Gazette.